The prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,706 discloses a process for forming an oxidation resistance metallic coating by depositing a nickel boron layer on a substrate from an acqueous bath, and heating the nickel boron layer in a halogenated reducing atmosphere to a temperature in the range of 850.degree. to 1300.degree. C. to thereby eliminate the boron from the layer. IBM TDB Vol. 20 No. 7 December 1977 P. 2668 suggests eliminating phosphorous from a nickel-phosphorous layer deposited by electrodeposition techniques by heating.